Asthma UK have published the results of their 2016 survey of people living with Asthma in the UK.

They found that asthma has a huge impact on the lives of people with asthma, and that two thirds of people are still not receiving basic care for their asthma.

42% now receive asthma action plans – almost double the proportion (24%) who received them in 2013. Most (78%) people with asthma attend an annual asthma review.

Nearly a third of people said their symptoms prevented them from doing the things they wanted in their spare time.

For 26% asthma affected their ability to work or study.

The report also considers how asthma care might change in the future. It calls for digital asthma action plans to be incorporated into personal health records and GP computer systems, arguing that being able to access and complete written asthma action plan may help increase their usage and thus stop asthma attacks and hospitalisations.

PIF has recently published a guide to personal health records, bringing together the voices of people using online health records. You can access the guide ‘Personal Health Records: learning from voices of experience’ here.